An analysis of the novel dubious battle by john steinbeck

He offers Mac and London a bribe, but then threatens them when the men refuse to bite. Burke—another "boss" of a group of workers—publicly denounces London for taking bribes which he is not doing.

Jim finds himself anxious to become involved in the strike but Mac uses him sparingly. Given the subject matter of this novel, the comparison with The Grapes of Wrath is even more inevitable.

Harry determines that Jim will be a good candidate and brings him to a house to meet his new posse: Mac and Jim hustle to arrange everything the workers will need when they walk out. Mac and Jim step outside the camp to try to win over the police and nearly get themselves lynched.

He places it on a platform for the strikers to see and to use as an incentive to stay united. Mac and Jim hope to organize a strike that will carry over to the cotton fields in the South.

Jim Nolan is new to the workings of these systems. Meanwhile, restless Jim takes matters into his own hands. Instead, most of the action is contained in dialogue.

I mean I dislike them as people. Mac explains to Jim that it is essential that they remain vigilant and use the situation as an opportunity to convince the workers to support them and their mission, and to agree to organize. Mac immediately launches into his rote speech to rally the workers, putting his grief to use for the "greater good.

A heavily armed sheriff appears at the camp with an eviction notice; Anderson has had enough. They have the larger goal of spreading the ideals of wealth equality and justice for workers around the country. Jim can hardly contain his excitement: That was a burden for Steinbeck as it would be for any writer.

Jim and Mac are duped into going to the orchard, where Mac realizes too late that an ambush awaits them, and Jim ends up being killed. To be notified when we launch a full study guide, please contact us. In Dubious Battle Summary SuperSummary, a modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics.

All is not lost—the unconquerable will, And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield: When they arrive, the scabs are hesitating in the train yard—until crazy Joy appears and tries to lead them over to the workers. He ends the offer of his land as a refuge, leaving the strikers without a place to live.

The whole situation in the orchard pops when old Dan, a cantankerous senior worker, falls from his ladder and breaks his hip.

Jim and Mac begin working alongside the men, hoping to convince them to strike. Mac has a knack for recognizing chances to prompt workers to take action and is not above manipulating situations to achieve what he is looking for. Steinbeck was, if anything, disparaging about communists, commenting in a letter to a friend shortly after this novel was published: Mac pretends to have medical training and helps to deliver the grandbaby of a leader called London.

Mac and Jim notice that Doc Burton is missing and suspect that vigilantes have kidnapped him. And what is else not to be overcome?

The dispirited workers march to the train station while surrounded by hostile police forces. Writing a novel like The Grapes of Wrath meant that everything else Steinbeck wrote either before or after was going to be compared to it.

Mac convinces Anderson to let the workers camp out in one of his empty fields. This one-page guide includes a plot summary and brief analysis of In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck. The novel begins by focusing on a labor conflict between migrant workers who are employed as apple pickers and an association of local growers.

A conflict over wages is going on between the owners of apple orchards in the Torgas Valley, and Mac is sent to the site. Jim, meanwhile, pays careful attention to how Mac works, in particular to how he is able to manipulate the men. Once Jim is accepted as a member of the Party, Mac McLeod, who is a very experienced field worker, takes Jim under his wing and mentors him in the ways of the Party.

A random vigilante guns Joy down in front of everyone. He commented that "You would never know that In Dubious Battle was by the same John Steinbeck if the publishers did not tell you so. The strike becomes doomed to fail when the man who let the workers set up camp on his land is the victim of a vigilante action.ANALYSIS.

In Dubious Battle () John Steinbeck () “In Dubious Battle might be called proletarian, though Steinbeck was too individual to be so baldly classified. He had been assigned by a newspaper to write articles about transient labor camps in California.

About In Dubious Battle. A riveting novel of labor strife and apocalyptic violence that maps the frontier where the masses become a mobAt once a relentlessly fast-paced, admirably observed novel of social unrest and the story of a young manâ€™s struggle for identity, In Dubious Battle is set in the California apple country, where a strike by migrant workers against rapacious landowners spirals out of control.

In Dubious Battle study guide contains a biography of John Steinbeck, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. About In Dubious Battle In Dubious Battle Summary. “John Steinbeck and Farm Labor Unionization: The Background of In Dubious Battle.” American Literature 52, no.

2 (May, ): Situates Steinbeck’s novel within the social conditions from which it emerged. Free summary and analysis of the events in John Steinbeck's In Dubious Battle that won't make you snore. We promise.

John Steinbeck’s novel In Dubious Battle (with a title and opening quote from Milton) tells the tragic story of a labor strike amongst apple growers and pickers in a fictionalized California/5.